TKA's unique mapping approach captures the intra-industry forces of Professor Michael Porter's "five forces" model, then integrates extra-industry forces — strategic externalities that affect all industry players. Though not as readily understood, these exogenous forces can be equally impactful drivers of enterprise competitiveness as those forces inside the industry.

The key components of TKA's methodology are illustrated here. The value ecosystem includes the "five forces" (each indicated with an asterisk above), plus additional forces within the industry—then integrates key strategically-relevant value drivers outside the industry, as shown below.

The result is a comprehensive map of the competitive value ecosystem of a client/target company at a single point in time. When this map is updated dynamically as conditions change, it becomes a solid foundation for a robust Strategic Intelligence system.

Client Use Case - Bioplastics

TKA recently built value maps for the emerging bioplastics industry, shown below. These show the competitive forces at work both within and outside this industry, including product categories, competitors, suppliers, regulations, and others.

The maps were used to identify strategic opportunities and investment candidates. They could form the basis for an ongoing intelligence program for the industry.

Client Use Case - RFID

TKA built a dynamic value map of industry players in various segments of the RFID industry (software, hardware readers, etc.) This enabled our client to:

track developments among rivals,

develop sourcing alternatives, and

identify possible acquisition targets.

Client Use Case - Credit Cards

TKA used Competitive Ecosystem Mapping to help a major credit card company think beyond its traditional rivals toward more innovative competitors, including online and mobile payment systems. This enabled them to expand their competitive strategies to counter these newer rivals.